Tails from the Cat Shop: CyberCat Series

By Jessika Jenvieve

'It feels like there is a future'

 

Fantasy meets reality in Cyberspace, in a world where our online and offline experience, friendships, and even our identities can become entangled. Avatars are extensions of us, leading lives parallel to our own dull, everyday existence. There are no limits to our Virtual Lives and in this realm of limitless possibilities, sometimes, some dreams do come true.

Journey alongside Storm and Dude, a remarkable duo whose lives intertwine across fiercely opposing time within the virtual haven of Second Life. In this captivating world, they are drawn together by a shared passion for collecting virtual cats, and their once-spacious Second Life soon becomes over-crowded. So together they open the Cat Shop.

Meet Penny, the Italian-speaking Siamese kitten, with the delicate chocolate paws, and find out if Professor Poppett's poodle recovers from a curious bout of indoor barking syndrome. Brace yourself for a daring escapade into the alligator-infested bayou, a quest to discover the elusive Golden Kitten and find out why love always wins the day.

Tails from the Cat Shop is the prequel to the CyberCat Series

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jessika Jenvieve
• Release date: Aug 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9780646916088

Book preview

ONE

DUDE AND STORM GET A KITTEN AND THERE ARE GIFTS

They first saw the kittens wandering around the dance floor of Toby’s Juke Joint. They didn’t squash if you trod on them.

Aw Cute Cute So Cute

Their downfall followed quickly.

Storm was alone and Dudeless that day, when she found the Kitten Barn and there was row upon row of cute kitten pictures and nice little boxes. Throwing caution to the wind, and she came home with a small brown box. Actually, she liked the box, but her addiction to boxes could be another story.

The box sat temptingly on the floor until Dude arrived and wandered round it for a while. They were both nervous. This was to be their first-born kitten, since committing to their partnership following a romantic evening spent by a pool. Let’s call that another story too.

They had no clue what they were doing. Storm was very inexperienced when it comes to things giving birth. She saw a goat give birth once, but was away being sick at a critical juncture. Dude is a bit more experienced but easily distracted, as he was often away registering a domain:

http://mybabiesfirstdomain.com

So here we go:

Select Click Unpack

15 minutes? Your kitten will arrive in 15 minutes. They were unprepared for this and watched as the box wobbled and shook and talked back. As with all virtual things, a text hops over the object, telling you what is going on. The tension was unbearable. Later births, filmed by Dude, (don’t you hate this? - poor kid forced to watch its birth every time there are visitors) were equally enthralling but far less tense.

So, they waited. Your kitten has opened its eyes - 5 minutes. They held hands as far as the virtual world technology allowed. And then the box disappeared, and a tiny speck replaced it.

Welcome Ormond!

Setting up the first kitten was complicated as he dived under the sofa, but they got the hang of it pretty quick. Well, they thought they had. Once settled on Storm’s shoulder, he was photographed and praised. She was a nervous kitten’s Mum at last. His name was computer generated and in many ways that is the fun, the name is selected by the great big database of fate. Storm’s fascination with Ormond continues to this day, as some kittens get big personalities and some don’t, and Ormond takes after Dude here. He is bold and personality soaked.

The next day, she raced in-world to see her kitten.

ORMOND?

OMG… Where is he?

The fabulous split-level Japanese-designed Balinese-style pavilion home on the cliffs overlooking the Blake’s Sea *breathe* is a minefield for kittens with a range of over 4 meters. There are just too many levels, and all she could see of Ormond was his little name tag floating tragically above the floor. Those of you who are unfamiliar with virtual worlds will just have to untether your imagination here. This is a computer-simulated environment, and Ormond was stuck in the pixel wilderness. Storm tried de-rendering the floor, the surface, and the ocean all in a total panic. De-rending lets you select specific items and make them invisible and would have masses of real-life applications. You don’t like the neighbor’s fence. Hey, let’s de-render it. Don’t like the neighbor, we can de-render him too. There was soon nothing left to de-render and still no kitten. If you wait long enough, they come back. But Storm was a new first-time kitten, Mum. What to do? Dude, where are